Jakob Erbar

Jakob Erbar
Born	February 8, 1878 Düsseldorf, Germany
Died	January 7, 1935 (aged 56) Cologne, Germany
Nationality	German
Known for	typography
Notable work	Erbar series

Jakob Erbar (8 February 1878 – 7 January 1935) was a German professor of graphic design and a type designer. Erbar trained as a typesetter for the Dumont-Schauberg Printing Works before studying under Fritz Helmut Ehmcke and Anna Simons. Erbar went on to teach in 1908 at the Städtischen Berufsschule and from 1919 to his death at the Kölner Werkschule.^[1] His seminal Erbar series was one of the first geometric sans-serif typefaces, predating both Paul Renner's Futura and Rudolf Koch's Kabel by some five years.^[2]

Typefaces

Foundry types produced by Jakob Erbar:^[3]

• Feder Grotesk (1910, Ludwig & Mayer Typefoundry)
• Erbar series (1922–30, Ludwig & Mayer Typefoundry)
  • Erbar-Grotesk, made in four weights with italic and condensed.
  • Lumina, an open face version.
  • Lux, a version with contrasting outlines.
  • Phospohor, a bold, in-line version.
  • Lucina, a set of white-on-black capitals.
• Koloss (1923, Ludwig & Mayer Typefoundry)
• Candida (1936, Ludwig & Mayer Typefoundry)

External links

• Font Designer - Jakob Erbar
• MyFonts – Jakob Erbar

References

• Friedl, Ott, and Stein, Typography: an Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History. Black Dog & Levinthal Publishers: 1998. ISBN 1-57912-023-7.
• Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson. The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983. ISBN 0-7137-1347-X.

1. Friedl, Ott, and Stein, p. 210.
2. Macmillsn, Niel.An A-Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press, 2006 (pg. 78)
3. Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson. The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983, ISBN 0-7137-1347-X, p. 2408-249